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Man stabbed in Brookline iPad robbery

Brian D'Amico and WTBU report somebody was punched and stabbed on Pleasant Street at Browne tonight. Police are looking for two men, both about 6' tall, wearing knit caps over their faces and fleece pullovers.

BU Today reports the victim, 30, is a postdoctoral fellow at BU Medical School and that his two stab wounds were both superficial.

Read the news. There have been a ton of muggings, robberies right in this spot which yes--seems insane--but the very peaceful nature of it may be the exact reason that people feel safe strolling here at night with their valuables. Some folks seems ready to take advantage of that.

sends out an emergency alert telling people to avoid the area for awhile after every tiny crime.

They seem to not understand that crime isn't a broken water main or a traffic jam, which you can avoid until the police correct the situation. Crimes are committed and criminals flee- avoiding the area for a few hours does nothing except mollify parents.

As a resident of this neighborhood, I can attest that there ARE two blue light boxes on Browne Street. Unfortunately, neither were close to this incident. Additionally, a mugging occurred right next to a blue light last year... not much help.

Brookline and the area around BU IS NOT a high violent crime area. Boston area is SAFER than places like Philly, Baltimore, D.C., parts of NYC, yes, even neighborhoods south of 110th st in Manhattan, and don't even start some of the smaller more decrepit cities like Yale's hometown. This is a big city so yes, surprise, there's all kinds here including thugs, druggies, hustlers and petty criminals. And there are FAR MORE dangerous and violent areas in Boston and the metro area, but 99% of BU students and tourist are highly unlikely to visit them. And just because your street/neighborhood looks like a cute version of Sesame St or Mr. Roger's neighborhood it's still not a theme park or movie set. These folks are being targeted because they're known to carry desirable sh*t. And many are known to act oblivious to their surrounding, have their head buried up their smart phone, and are not likely to put up a fight. It's like a bank robber robs banks because that's where the money is.

I perused the WTBU forum posts and what struck me the most is the sense of entitlement and naivete... not including any troll posts. Especially coming from those who claimed to have lived in London, NY, etc., and to have felt perfectly safe at all hours without a care in the world while they think Boston is dangerous and has serious 'social problems' by comparison...LOL

I think most of us here are aware that there are more dangerous places in Boston. But if there's as all area that's being heavily targeted by what's surely a small but focused group of criminals, doesn't it make sense to go after them?

Argument 2: Boston University is responsible for what happens to its students and staff, no matter where they may be.

Argument 3: It's a city, NBD, you should expect people to stab you and take your things.

I'm glad BU has announced they'll be contributing to more patrols, because I do spend a lot of time in the BU-ish area, and I like not being mugged. But ultimately, there's some sort of crime bubbling up from an apartment complex/gang/whatever that's based in this area, and it's going to take more than police patrols and escort services to get it to stop.

and see if this is actually the case or more a case of perception. These types of crimes are not that unusual in many neighborhoods, but they also rarely receive attention like this.

I think the best that can be done is for potential victims to simply be more aware of their surrounding, of things like the time of day, who is else is near you. And yes, BU police and Brookline should step up patrols, but you know their resources especially Brooline PD aren't infinite. Police generally don't prevent a crime from happening, they should up to clean up the mess after the fact, file reports, attempt to catch the perp[s]. The real truth is a lot of the onus for individual safety relies on the individual him or herself. People must get in the habit of thinking and acting more pro-actively.

Old-fashioned muggings like this seem to be on the rise. I live in JP--plenty of crime here, but street robberies usually get a fair bit of coverage when there's an uptick because that's what scares a lot of us or makes us antsy walking home at night. I'd agree that of course people have to be vigilant wherever they are but statistics and common sense would dictate that this is generally a pretty low-crime area and that most people are going to feel comfortable walking home at night--maybe too comfortable, just FYI, I used to work on Pleasant and used to see plenty of cops around but almost exclusively BU cops.

Boston [and Brookline] does have a particularly high amount of residential only blocks compared to more mixed use blocks like NY or London have.

This leads to less foot traffic in those blocks and less open businesses late at night. This leads to more of a feeling that one is vulnerable to muggings due to less witnesses or places of refuge. While it may be perceptual only - I don't know if statistics reflect the effect of such - it makes a difference to how safe one feels.

And the claim that somehow people should just accept that there is going to be crime is essentially giving up on trying to fight crime. Yes, crimes in certain neighborhoods will receive more coverage. Yes, there are bigger problems out there. But you need to tackle what you can. A few more beat cops hired could provide nigh blanket coverage to any one of Boston's small neighborhoods. That isn't enough to stop a gang or organized crime in an area. But that is enough to stop most street crime in an area.

Stop and frisk laws are also an issue. Sometimes police may see a suspicious group of people - yes, unfortunately sometimes their suspicions are borne of racism - but can't do much more than follow or observe them at a distance. Then another call comes in and off they go to something else. CC cameras with facial recognition software also help (see Britain's use of them to track known football hooligans). I am primarily a liberal, but one who does think that privacy concerns are mostly moot.

Some would like to see some of those drones at use in Afghanistan put to use in our cities after we pull out of there. Nothing says due process like a Hellfire missile. But perhaps the simple use of using them to spy on and track fleeing criminals so they are caught would have a positive effect in and of itself.